Māori wards
What will introducing a Māori ward mean?
The council sought informal feedback on Māori wards from the community as part of its Representation Review in March 2021. In all, the Council received 499 responses on Māori representation. Of those, 408 responses (81.76 per cent) supported Māori wards. Far North District councillors voted to establish Māori wards for the 2022 and 2025 local body elections following an extraordinary Council meeting in May 2021.
The Māori ward, Ngā Tai o Tokerau, will cover the entire district and comprise of four councillors elected by voters on the Māori Electoral Roll. For a list of candidates standing in the Ngā Tai o Tokerau ward, please visit the 'Voting in this local election' webpage.
Fair representation means each elected member represents roughly the same number of people. There is a "plus 10% rule" to help us avoid unnatural divisions between wards. In 2020 there were 25,000 people in the Far North on the Māori electoral roll and 46,050 on the general roll. That means:
- Each general ward councillor represents between 6907 and 8442 people
- Each Māori ward councillor represents between 5625 and 6875 people.
Questions and answers about Māori wards
No. To be eligible you must be a New Zealand citizen and your name must be on the Parliamentary Electoral Roll anywhere in New Zealand.
You will need to be nominated by two electors whose names appear on the Māori electoral roll within the area of elections for which you are standing.
Equally if you are on the Māori roll you can stand in a General wards, and will need to be nominated by two electors whose names appear on the General electoral roll within the area of election for which you are standing.
No – both rolls will vote for their community board members, and the Mayor.
I am Māori, currently on the general electoral roll but want to move to the Māori electoral roll so I can vote for councillors in the Māori ward – can I do this before the next local body elections?
No – the next available opportunity to change rolls will be in 2024. This is determined by central government (the Electoral Commission) under the Māori Electoral Option, which is usually held every 5 years (the last one was in 2018) - refer Electoral Commission | New Zealand Government www.govt.nz.
The Electoral Commission is responsible for electoral rolls under Vote.nz. Please visit their website at Home | Vote NZ or call them on 0800 36 76 56.